1. Why did we not take action against the actual perpetrators of the 9/11 – the Saudi’s (who incidentally, supplied most of the people as well as funding, as well as the extreme form of Islam that Bin Laden practices… and supplies money to verious terrorist organizations in the form of “religious charities”)?”
One main reason is that in a grand strategic sense, we were not in a position to take out the Saudi’s first. In one sense, the Saudi’s are the closest thing to a cold war rival government, and like the Soviets, or China, they are at the heart of much to do with Islamic extremeism,and terror.

Containment of Islmofascism doesn’t occur if we attack Saudi Arabia,. All the dictators, and cult leaders would use that as a giant excuse to consolidate power, and mobilize their populations. Some say that Iraq serves that purpose now, and ask why we didn’t just contain Iraq.

The reason that isn’t correct lies in the nature of the war. We are fighting a global Islamic idea, whether GWB or anyone else says so. Te radical Muslims have it right when they say we are making war on Islam (just not all of Islam)

Containment of the Islamofascism requiores pressure that can be sustaine, without creating the kind of war that containment is hoped to prevent. We can get awy with changing the regime in Iraq, but not so easily in Saudi Arabia.

“2. Why did we not, after publicly stating (over and over and over again) that we were going to pursue Bin Laden “Dead or Alive”, actually pursue him and catch him?”
I don’t beleive we have stopped pursueing him, but stealthily stalking him makes for boring headlines, and those pusueing BinLaden don’t want their effort to end up as a NYT headline, or expose how close the may be getting. We still have Bin Laden as a priority, but we can’t just sit and let other fires burn in the meantime. The other fires are more exciting, and useful ‘bad news’ can be filtered out to use at CNN, and Al Jazeera.

“3. Why is it that we cannot (or will not) find Bin Laden after over five years?”
Bin Laden isn’t the first fugitive to be on the run for such a long time, only one of the most sensational. Remember that some American bank robbers and criminals were popular with citizens during their time, and many people would as soon buy them a drink as call the feds. BinLaden is a hero in parts of the world we are searching for him in. See the Memri vids and you will see there are millions of people who would sheild him. It will take time.

“4. Why is it that CNN and Al-Jazeera seem to have him on speed dial and can find him in moments to arrange and tape interviews when we (again) can’t?”
I think the sympathies of CNN and Al Jazeera give us a clue as to why they would be aproached by agents of Bin Laden. He isn’t on speed dial, so I hope you were having a joke. Islamofacists know they can get airtime, with few questions from the media, if they use CNN, and others of sloppy moral character to give their vidoes,and tapes to.

“5. Why, if we are serious, will we, as a nation, not let our warfighters conduct the war as they need to – to win, and not bog them down with useless restrictions?”
We are trying to preserve the image of the USA as a friendly, and benevolent, non–imperial power. US troops who co-operate with local governments, and try to prevent civilian deaths are consistent with that attempt.

Unfortunately, while the benevolent image is the correct one, we are being trashed by neo-marxists, and Islamofascists, in a very effective smear campaign. Consider acusations that we are over there for oil. A colonial exploitive empire would be, and without qualm.

Instead we have avoided buying Iranian oil, and in many cases hurt our own econmy to boycott oil producing terror states. We would surely boycott Saudi Arabia if we could get away with it. We aren’t ready to do that yet.

Still the smears are made, and they stick in spite of evidence to the contrary. So we try to walk softly, after we have already used the big stick. I would have done it differently, but I’m not in charge. maybe my way wouldn’t work any better.

“6. Why do we insist on re-building every nation that declares war upon us? That is why they call it a war – the winner wins and the loser rebuilds themselves. Anything else is societal welfare.”

The USA with our brave allies, are for better or worse, the most responsabile powers on the planet. No offense to other nations, but we are better situated to provide aid, and assistance than most of them. We are less paralized by socialists in our leadership, and so we are more likely to jump into situations that others simply let fester.

We don’t like to leave the seeds for the next ugly war lying in fertile soil. We try to dig them out before they take root. So we rebuild. We want friends, not lingering enemies. That makes the USA and our contemporary allies more special than most of the world can know.

“I don’t recall the British rebuilding Washington after they burned it to the ground during the War of 1812 (or for that matter, the British rebuilding any nation they decimated).”

I don’t recall that we gave them that option in our country. They were also dealing with the end of the Napoleonic wars. Remember Napoleon?

I can’t say they never rebuilt anything. Much of the industry and educational institutions that the third world had when the Bitish empire receded, were built under the auspices of that empire. Much of what the Arab league had when they started was left behind after being built by Europeans. Strong western powers are more generous. The USA tries to uphold a very high standard. Our people expect it to a degree.

“7. Why do we care about the rights of those who, in our own country, give aid and comfort to the enemy instead of either trying them for treason or departing them to where they would feel more at home (out of the US)?”

Again, we are trying to be the good guys, and of course, we are smeared for the little precautions we do take.

You have to understand that our country (USA) started as a beautiful idea, and that idea had to go through some growing pains (civil war for example) and people had to leave older ideas of ethnic tribalism, and superiority by birth, behind them.

We even accept socialist ideas into the mix, but we need to be careful there as well. Some ‘progressive’ ideas aren’t that new, and don’t have that great a success record. The freedom of ideas is where we are struggling now.

We want to uphold an idea of ideological freedom, linking it to the First Amendment, without seing the logical risk. If free practice of religion included human sacrifice, would that be protected under the US Constution? The people who founded this nation would never have imagined that it could ever be a question.

Free exercise of religion is part of the risky ground this country is on. Atheists want to suppress it, going even beyond whether or not Congree has passed a law. Meanwhil Islamists abuse it. Islami s a faith, and a political system, and we are inexperienced at dealing with this kind of thing. We need to come to terms with the uniqueness of the threat.

“8. Why do we – not defend our borders, – ignore the rampant crime that is endemic in the nation’s streets, and – watch as our children are continually dumbed down to third world levels?”

This is a rare state of affairs. The socialist-one world- open border revolutionaries, are in league with big business. Hell just froze over.

I’m going out on a limb here and saying I believe that socialism in the USA is bent upon collapsing our Constitutional government, for one of their own preference.

Dumbing down our children, and our college students works in favor of that revolution. Crime comes from removing personal responsability, and persona; risk, if caught. both are hallmarks of how socialist handle crime. Crie leads to instability, which will help the revolution come about. See the pattern?

If they can save Marxism in America, then they can still win the global revolution. Islam will be reformed in the aftermath (a socialist fairy tale) and wealth will be distributed … Yaaah!

Stupidly, Big Business only sees the cheap labor, and totally misses the real risk of masses favorable to socialism, becoming resident here. We are looking at a three pronged attack on our culture (Islam, Socialism, Multinationals with selective allegience)

I believe honest imigrants who come here legally, are not looking for a hand out, but an oportunity to make something of themselves. Some illegals want the same thing, but won’t wait their turn.

Other illegals are here selling drugs, or trying to reclaim the ancient Aztec empire (cultish and stupid, yet popular). Some illegals are literally the enemy, living here, using our society against us, and preparing for open war.

The ‘Pledge of Allegiance’ was never a better idea than it is now. As for the Atheist, they don’t have to say the “under God’ part. No one is making them. Now, more than ever, we need to know who came here to be part of America, and who came here only to feed off us. Who are the ‘People’, and who are the parasites?

“9. Why?

I have opinions on the above, but want to hear from others.

Emmett J. on November 22, 2006 at 10:01 PM
”

Why not? Our enemies have no love for our republic, so why not twist our nations best efforts into what might be percieved as evil? The new wave of Hitlers don’t want us to stop them, so why not demonize us in their media?

The ‘Medea Benjamins’ of the world, want a socialist paradise, so we must be weakened, then paralized, then replaced. Why not exaggerate the wars cost? Why not mock our brave soldiers, and then use their deaths to undermine the cause for which they fought? Our own college students absorb drivel, fashioned to shape their young, idealisti minds, into weapons of hate, and why not? “We will destroy you from within”, is that what they said?

MEMRI is fantastic. Everyone who cares to know the threat of Islam has them to thank. Keep up the great work.

Lazarus on November 22, 2006 at 1:13 PM

Rock on!

Here are some questions for discussion:

1. Why did we not take action against the actual perpetrators of the 9/11 – the Saudi’s (who incidentally, supplied most of the people as well as funding, as well as the extreme form of Islam that Bin Laden practices… and supplies money to verious terrorist organizations in the form of “religious charities”)?

2. Why did we not, after publicly stating (over and over and over again) that we were going to pursue Bin Laden “Dead or Alive”, actually pursue him and catch him?

3. Why is it that we cannot (or will not) find Bin Laden after over five years?

4. Why is it that CNN and Al-Jazeera seem to have him on speed dial and can find him in moments to arrange and tape interviews when we (again) can’t?

5. Why, if we are serious, will we, as a nation, not let our warfighters conduct the war as they need to – to win, and not bog them down with useless restrictions?

6. Why do we insist on re-building every nation that declares war upon us? That is why they call it a war – the winner wins and the loser rebuilds themselves. Anything else is societal welfare.

I don’t recall the British rebuilding Washington after they burned it to the ground during the War of 1812 (or for that matter, the British rebuilding any nation they decimated).

7. Why do we care about the rights of those who, in our own country, give aid and comfort to the enemy instead of either trying them for treason or departing them to where they would feel more at home (out of the US)?

8. Why do we – not defend our borders, – ignore the rampant crime that is endemic in the nation’s streets, and – watch as our children are continually dumbed down to third world levels?

You mean the Iraqi Civil War? Whose side do we take? The Shia are more powerful and numerous so we could side with them and help them wipe out the Sunni once and for all.

But that’s too easy, we’re America after all, we like a challenge. I say we side with the Sunni, kill just enough Shia to even out the numbers and then everybody will be equal. Everybody wins! Except the dead of course, and well, they are dead so they shouldn’t mind much.

]]>By: Babshttp://hotair.com/archives/2006/11/22/the-arab-and-iranian-reaction-to-9-11-five-years-later/comment-page-1/#comment-115890
Wed, 22 Nov 2006 14:55:31 +0000http://hotair.com/archives/2006/11/22/the-arab-and-iranian-reaction-to-9-11-five-years-later/#comment-115890I have a son in flight training at NAS Pensacola. Two things; first, you absolutely could learn to guide a plane into a building and turn off its comms after 18 months of flight training (especially if you don’t want to learn how to take off or land…). Second; I just donated to MEMRI because I think it provides an invaluable service for us in the west.
I applaud Ron Silver for agreeing to host this documentary. I only wish he had talked at a faster rate. I can’t help but wonder if his slow cadence was so that he could be translated in real time…
]]>By: sonnyspats1http://hotair.com/archives/2006/11/22/the-arab-and-iranian-reaction-to-9-11-five-years-later/comment-page-1/#comment-115876
Wed, 22 Nov 2006 14:36:25 +0000http://hotair.com/archives/2006/11/22/the-arab-and-iranian-reaction-to-9-11-five-years-later/#comment-115876Thats a good introduction to MEMRI Films. I ned to check it out. Silver speaks of the translation from Arabic. That was a major factor for the military, even with friendly Iraqis. We were unprepared in that respect. Thank God for purple fingers. We should not let down all those people in Iraq who believe in what we are doing. Will they become a memri too? Michelle doing a little Mao motif today. Greetings Conrad! LOL Happy Thanksgiving all. I’ll be on the road today. Gonna visit with family for a couple of days. I hope they have a PC.
]]>By: Johnhttp://hotair.com/archives/2006/11/22/the-arab-and-iranian-reaction-to-9-11-five-years-later/comment-page-1/#comment-115872
Wed, 22 Nov 2006 14:27:24 +0000http://hotair.com/archives/2006/11/22/the-arab-and-iranian-reaction-to-9-11-five-years-later/#comment-115872Come to think of it Michelle, isn’t that the same kind of hat that Dan Akroyd and Steve Martin wore in the old “Two Wild and Crazy Guys” skit on SNL?